Passage Illustrated: An Historical Anecdote about Napoleon at Fontainebleau

For above an hour we loitered about the lonely and deserted walks, where already the Emperor’s foot-tracks had worn a marked pathway, when we grew weary and were about to return, just as one of the party suggested, half in ridicule of the sanctity of the spot, that we should have a game of leap-frog ere we left it. The idea pleased us and was at once adopted. Our plan was this, — each person stationed himself in some by-walk or alley, and waited till the other, whose turn it was, came and leaped over him; so that, besides the activity displayed, there was a knowledge of the locale necessary; for to any one passed over a forfeit was to be paid. Our game began at once, and certainly I doubt if ever those green alleys and shady groves rang to such hearty laughter. Here would be seen a couple rolling over together on the grass; there some luckless wight counting out his pocket-money to pay his penalty. The hours passed quietly over, and the moon rose, and at last it came to my turn to make the tour of the garden. As I was supposed to know all its intricacies better than the rest, a longer time was given for them to conceal themselves; at length the word was given, and I started.

“Anxious to acquit myself well, I hurried along at top speed, but guess my surprise to discover that nowhere could I find one of my companions. Down one walk I scampered, up another, across a third, but all was still and silent; not a sound, not a breath, could I detect. There was still one part of the garden unexplored; it was a small open space before a little pond which usually contained the gold fish the Emperor was so fond of. Thither I bent my steps, and had not gone far when in the pale moonlight I saw, at length, one of my companions waiting patiently for my coming, his head bent forward and his shoulders rounded. Anxious to repay him for my own disappointment, I crept silently forward on tiptoe till quite near him, when, rushing madly on, I sprang upon his back; just, however, as I rose to leap over, he raised his head, and, staggered by the impulse of my spring, he was thrown forward, and after an ineffectual effort to keep his legs fell flat upon his face in the grass. Bursting with laughter, I fell over him on the ground, and was turning to assist him, when suddenly he sprang upon his feet, and — horror of horrors! — it was Napoleon himself; his usually pale features were purple with rage, but not a word, not a syllable escaped him.

“‘Qui êtes vous?’ said he, at length.

“‘St. Croix, Sire,’ said I, still kneeling before him, while my very heart leaped into my mouth. [Chapter L, "The Watch-Fire," 269]

Commentary: A Peculiar Anecdote Translated from the French

This marks Napoleon Bonaparte's initial appearance in Phiz's narrative-pictorial sequence as he will shortly appear in a more conventional light in the title-page vignette for the second volume, O'Malley in the Presence of Napoleon (anticipating p. 632). However, Lever's comic use of the Emperor of the French in an interpolated anecdote contributes nothing to our understanding of the protagonist or the main plot about O'Malley's accepting Hammersley's challenge as a result of Captain Trevyllian's engineering a pretext for a duel between Lucy Dashwood's competing lovers in Chapter XLVIII, "The Quarrel." Indeed, the scene of St. Croix's embarrassment seems intended merely for comic relief, a welcome digression from the apprehended dual and O'Malley's assignment to Major Monsoon at the headquarters of the Lusitanian legion, carrying with it a field promotion to Captain.

The mission of course forces O'Malley to defer his "engagement" with Trevyllian and Hammerseley. Following orders, he and his unit cover twelve leagues in a single day, and make camp overnight. His slumbers are interrupted shortly before dawn by a handsome, nineteen-year-old French prisoner who had caught his attention the day before. In escaping, he has been shot in the arm, and in the darkness has misapprehended the British Light Dragoons as French. O'Malley determines to help the chasseur à cheval, a sous-lieutenant in his father's regiment, and then let him escape. Thus, Lever introduces yet another interpolated tale, that of St. Croix about his encountering Napoleon in the deserted palace gardens.

The picture seems misplaced in Chapter LI, "The March," since the facing page merely alludes to St. Croix's having played leap-frog with the Emperor. Phiz establishes the setting through a pair of neoclassical statues, but the facing page introduces a very different interpolated tale by St. Croix which Lever saves for the next chapter, Chapter LII, "The Page."

Related Material

• O'Malley in the Presence of Napoleon (Vignette title, Vol. 2; anticipating p. 632)
• Napoleon's Surprising Popularity in Nineteenth-Century England
• Charles Lever's Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon (1840-41)
• Hablot Knight Browne, 1815-1882; A Brief Biography

Bibliography

Lever, Charles. Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon. "Edited by Harry Lorrequer." Dublin: William Curry, Jun. London: W. S. Orr, 1841. 2 vols.

Lever, Charles. Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. Published serially in The Dublin University Magazine from Vol. XV (March 1840) through XVIII (December 1841). Dublin: William Curry, March 1840 through December 1841. London: Samuel Holdsworth, 1842; rpt., Chapman and Hall, 1873.

Lever, Charles. Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. Vol. I and II. In two volumes. Project Gutenberg. Last Updated: 2 September 2016.

Steig, Michael. Chapter Two: "The Beginnings of 'Phiz': Pickwick, Nickleby, and the Emergence from Caricature." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 24-50.

Stevenson, Lionel. Chapter V, "Renegade from Physic, 1839-1841." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. London: Chapman and Hall, 1939. Pp. 73-93.

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Created 15 February 2023